Knee pads are commonly worn by workers in a wide variety of trades and are typically adopted for safety, protection, comfort and convenience of the user.
Commonly comprised of at least padding for comfort, popular knee pad designs often have a rigid or semi-rigid outer shell for protection of the patella, as well as for durability of the appliance.
A significant drawback for currently available products is the tendency for a knee pad to undesirably move, or translate its position, during use or when the wearer moves between successive work locations. A knee pad is intended to protect the patella, but these unintended shifting movements, which may be described as translational movements of the device from its protective position, can cause discomfort, inconvenience and may facilitate injury. Such undesirable shifts may include movement in the body's frontal plane such as upward and downward along the long axis of the leg, movement in the body's transverse plane such as horizontal rotation about the leg and knee, and/or movement in the body's sagital plane such as lifting of the knee pad away from the patella.
The subject design minimizes each of the aforementioned problems. The knee protection apparatus described below allows for adjustability, stability and strength in a single device. Furthermore, use of the subject design can enhance the comfort, safety and efficiency of the user in a variety of work environments.